1. Field of the Invention
The subject disclosure relates to methods and apparatus for analyzing the quality of a cell in a mobile device network, and more particularly to improved methods and apparatuses for presenting a graphical display illustrating the Quality of Service in the cell to facilitate improving cell performance in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network.
2. Background of the Related Art
In mobile radio networks, the network provider is concerned with optimizing the performance of the radio network. Poor performance and inefficiency result from congestion, inadequate coverage and the like. Networks such as 4G/Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks have used older pre-existing techniques to optimize the radio network.
Radio Access Networks (RAN) utilize the control plane to carry signaling traffic. The handset and RAN can address some issues such as utilizing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and providing a large bandwidth when needed but based on the signaling information of the control plane, it is not possible to manage the associated resources. For example, monitoring the handset and RAN signaling information provides no insight as to the Quality of Service (QoS), which creates an information gap.
For another example, drive testing is a typical method of measuring and assessing the coverage, capacity and QoS of a mobile radio network. Drive testing consists of using a motor vehicle containing mobile radio network air interface measurement equipment that can detect and record a wide variety of the physical and virtual parameters of mobile cellular service in a given geographical area. The drive test equipment is usually highly specialized electronic devices that interface to OEM mobile handsets. By drive test measuring what a wireless network subscriber would experience in any specific area, wireless carriers can make directed changes to their networks that provide better coverage and service to their customers.
A great deal of data can be collected during drive testing. Drive test equipment typically collects data relating to the network itself, services running on the network such as voice or data services, radio frequency scanner information and GPS information to provide location logging. The dataset collected during drive testing field measurements can include information such as: signal intensity; signal quality; interference; dropped calls; blocked calls; anomalous events; call statistics; service level statistics; QoS information; handover information; neighbouring cell information; GPS location co-ordinates; and the like. Drive testing can focus on network optimization and troubleshooting or service quality monitoring. For example, quality monitoring focuses on the end user experience of the service, and allows mobile network operators to react to what effectively subjective quality degradations by investigating the technical cause of the problem in time-correlated data collected during the drive test. Service quality monitoring is typically carried out in an automated fashion, using devices that run largely without human intervention carried in the drive test vehicles.
Drive testing is a costly, tediously slow, and inexact method to assess a mobile radio network. Further, drive testing is not statistically relevant to large volumes and real life activity. Still further, drive testing is not representative of user behavior as users are often off-road be it indoors or out, running new applications, creating non-deterministic events and the like. In addition to drive testing, network operators can rely on Operations Support Systems (OSS). OSS provides aggregated and averaged counters on a cell basis only. As such, OSS counter information is not helpful regarding visibility on quality distribution within cells or perceived quality by network users.